Twitter Trash Talk Takes Courtney Love To Court

Twitter may be an easy way to share your thoughts with the world without too much filtering, but an upcoming court case may prove that that’s not necessarily a good thing. Fashion designer Dawn Simorangkir is suing Courtney Love for defamation based on the Hole singer’s tweet tirade against her.

In March 2009, Love – upset after Simorangkir demanded payment for thousands of dollars’ worth of clothes – took to Twitter to vent her frustrations, accusing the designer of stealing from her, as well as being “a drug-pushing prostitute with a history of assault and battery who lost custody of her own child and capitalized on Love’s fame.” Somewhat surprisingly, Love’s attorney James Janowitz believes that Love didn’t do anything wrong: “We don’t believe there’s any defamation, and even if there were defamatory statements, there was no damage,” he says, explaining that Love’s tweets were clearly presented as her opinion, instead of actual fact. In case that’s not enough, attorneys for the singer also have a medical expert ready to testify that her mental state wasn’t sufficiently “subjectively malicious” to justify the lawsuit.

The trial is scheduled to begin January 18th. Watch what you tweet until then, just in case.